Keys to the World
by Hyou
Summary: Naruto and Hanabi are reunited! But what are the circumstances? What greater powers are working behind the scenes to ruin this reunion? Politics really suck...
1. Chapter 1

well i got bored with Rebirth for a bit cuz im not doing so well with getting the new battles out, so i'll just try Naruto fics for a bit

this will be an attempt at a Naruto and Hanabi friendship in a tribute to the Naruto/Hanabi friendship/possible pairing fic by Elysium. although his chapters are kinda short, theres no denying he's got something going on.

this story starts out from the general beginning to whatever point in time I happen to choose to end it. so yea, it's before Naruto becomes an official Genin. so expect some parts of a different storyline than the one Kishimoto made out.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Kishimoto-sama owns it and MOST UNWISELY gave license to America to "Americanize" it (and ruined it beyond recognition).

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**Chapter One (No Sub-Title currently)**

Konoha, the Shinobi village of the Leaf. Home to the many proud and valiant Shinobi of the Leaf. Also home to one-

"Naruto, you little brat! Get back here!"

Several Chuunin level ninja were shouting at some kid wearing orange pants, blue shirt, and an orange jacket tied around his waste while chasing him around the village.

"Aw, shut up, you losers! You're just jealous 'cuz you don't have the skills or the guts to pull off what I did! That's why I'm gonna be Number 1!"

Uzumaki, Naruto: Local town boob and prankster. Carrying cans of paint. Open cans of paint. Cans of paint that were half empty. Half empty cans of paint that were once full and unceremoniously dumped all over the Hokage Monument and moustached and just plain defiled. Understandably, the Chuunin were vivid.

"Naruto! Get back here! You're in BIG trouble this time!"

"Haha! Ya gotta catch me first ya losers!"

Unfortunately he got caught.

Umimo Iruka: Teacher at the Ninja Academy of the Leaf. Chuunin level and unconditional 'baby-sitter' of Uzumaki Naruto.

**After Class...**

Naruto glumly walked out of the building with Iruka, pouting and muttering while having been made to carry the janitor's equipment to the Hokage Monument.

"Now, Naruto, you're gonna have to clean every single drop of paint, right down into the nostrils, you got it?"

"Yea yea. Not like I've got anything better to do...You sure do suck, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka just smiled, much like a father might have to his son,

"Get to work, Naruto. If you do a good job, I'll consider letting you 'get away' with one of your pranks. Personally, I feel the Monument looks much better like this."

Naruto gave one of his wide and cheesy grins, the one he had gotten to be known for,

"Haha, maybe you're not so bad, you old fogey!"

(Perfect example of my altering the story)

**Several Hours Later-**

Naruto walked down the slowly darkening streets. It was still pretty bright out and people were finishing some last minute things. Children were still running around laughing towards Naruto's general direction. Naruto was debating whether he should just leave them alone or play with them until some adults showed up.

The adults hurriedly pushed the children to the side of the road where they were nowhere near Naruto. Naruto sagged his shoulders and began to walk, this time more dejectedly. He walked aimlessly and ended up in the park where he had once played with some kids from his class.

'What were their names again? Shikimaro? Ina? Keeva?' (I know these aren't the real names)

"Arg! Why won't anyone ever play with me anymore!"

Naruto punched the air angrily, not fazed by the fact that his question sounded a little childish. That was until he heard a voice behind him.

"Why won't anyone play with you?"

It was a small voice, female. Naruto quickly turned around and a saw a little girl with long, straight, black hair and oddly white-ish lavender eyes that were pupil-less. She looked as if she were no older than eight. She looked up at Naruto with a blank stare riddled with a little curiousity. She was wearing a plain grey yukata with a blue sash tied around the middle with large sleeves that covered her hands, loose black pants and plain sandals.

"Hey, you look like that one girl in my class, Hinata or something."

The odd little girl kept staring up at Naruto with that...odd blank look as if she could see things he couldn't. Even Naruto, as naive as he was, could see that she was unnaturally focused despite her young age.

"Hinata-nee-chan is my older sister, so yes, we look alike a little. And since you seem to be wondering, we're from the Hyuuga clan."

Naruto rapidly shook his head. This little girl could read minds!

"Eh! You read my mind! Stop reading it, damnit!"

"...I'm not reading your mind, mister. Tou-sama told me that we can sort of see what you are thinking about because of our bloodline."

"Oooh! Really! That's so cool! I want eyes like that! Maybe Sakura-chan would like me and think I'm cool and go out on a date with me!"

The little girl just watched Naruto run around and rant about making plans to get eyes like hers and get this Sakura girl to go out on a date with him. He was...weird, there was no other word in this little girl's vocabulary other than...weird, that would fit this boy as a description.

"...Ok...but can you tell me about why no one will play with you?"

This question suddenly brought a great change in Naruto, as the little girl could plainly see. For one, he had just suddenly stopped short of a great leap of joy and second, his eyes suddenly dimmed and became much harder to read than it was just a few seconds ago. They had become a little clouded and her eyes could not penetrate that for some reason.

The little girl walked over to where Naruto was and tugged on his sleeve. Naruto looked at the little girl pulling his sleeve and felt an odd feeling he had never felt before: compassion, although he couldn't place the feeling just yet.

"If you want...I'll play with you, mister. Do you want to be my friend?"

Naruto widened his eyes in surprise. No one had ever offered to be his friend before, and this girl, this strange girl who came out of nowhere was offering to be his first friend? He had to make sure...

"OUCH!"

The little girl stepped back in surprise. She couldn't see why but Naruto had suddenly pinched himself in the arm very very hard and was hopping up and down in rage and pain. So she just settled to tilt her head to the side a little in confusion.

"I'm not dreaming...this is..real...I'M NOT DREAMING! YEEEAAAA!"

This just proceeded to confuse the little girl even more. Suddenly he was leaping from one end of the road to the other in joy. He sure was...there's that word again: weird.

"Uhm...what do you mean?"

Naruto stopped halfway through a jump and landed in front of the girl. She had to admit, the weirdo had great dexterity. She then saw that the 'weirdo' had a smile, a true genuine smile on his face as he looked at her.

"Bah, I'm just...happy, ya know? You're my first friend!"

The little girl couldn't help but smile a little at that outburst. She just couldn't stop her muscles from contracting to that foreign shape. This guy was...weird, yea, but also...different. She had seen people becoming friends as if it were nothing but the passing of a dust particle, but this boy, he truly cherished having a friend.

"Well...if we're going to be friends, shouldn't we know our names?"

"Eh? But I know what my name is already."

All of a sudden, the little girl in the neat little yukata experienced what people in a cliched anime experience all the time: a face fault. Later on, when she would be much older, she would ask herself, "What horror have I unleashed?"

Shaking her head, she answered,

"No, I mean I should know your name and you should know mine."

"Oh...that makes a lot more sense. My name is Uzumaki Naruto! But you can call me the Next Hokage!"

Smiling once again, 'What is the matter with me today?',

"My name is Hyuuga Hanabi. It's a pleasure to meet you, Naruto-san."

Hanabi bowed to Naruto while he shook it off.

"Nah, don't bother with the bow. And cut the Naruto-san, just call me Naruto!"

With that said, Naruto stretched out his hand to her. To Naruto it was just a friendly handshake. To Hanabi, it was much more, it was a doorway into a normal childhood, a key to realizing that not everyone in this world was as shallow as many people were. To Hanabi, it was the key to the world, being offered on a silver platter with a side dish of a detailed guidebook. Put simply, it was friendship, pure and simple.

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ok, my first attempt at a Naruto fanfiction. I had something much more glamorous planned but this seemed to be a better thing to me. I say, simple is better. although in some cases, elaborate is very good.

well feedback will be much appreciated and sorry for the cheesy ending paragraph, i felt...cheesy?

reviews are very greatly appreciated, thank you

Ja Ne


	2. Chapter 2

so here's chapter two of my Naruto fic. as a heads up, I will be skipping several scenes shown in the anime because I don't plan to make this an epic fic length fic. it'll be pretty short and there will be major gaps in the timeline.

and so, we continue on with the adventures of Naruto and his new friend, Hyuuga Hanabi.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

the song thing in the italics is from the book "Holes" by Louis Sachar.

Speech:

"Blah" normal

'Blah' thoughts

thats all for now

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**Chapter 2**

It was a cloudy day. The sun was nearly completely blocked out and the clouds looked gray and threatening. The telltale smells of a coming rain storm were apparent. This suited Naruto just fine. He didn't feel very excited or happy, even when he had passed the Genin selection exams. He absentmindedly picked at his hitai-ate (sp?) as he mused over last nights events...

**Flashback**

"You're the Nine-tailed Demon Fox, Kyuubi!"

**End Flashback**

Mizuki's face and voice were still clear and his voice still rang in Naruto's head. The malicious sadistic smile Mizuki had made when he revealed the village secret was deeply etched in Naruto's mind.

Naruto sniffed and continued to watch the grass do nothing whatsoever. Soon, he buried his head in his arms. The sanctuary the tree provided comforted him to some small extent. If only...

_"If only, if only," the woodpecker sighs,_

_"The bark on the tree was just a little bit softer."_

_While the wolf waits below, hungry and lonely,_

_He cries to the moon,_

_"If only, if only."_

Naruto let out a big sigh and closed his eyes, feeling the rays of light pass him by.

'If only, if only...'

"Naruto? Are you crying?"

Naruto snapped his head up to see who had inquired whether he had been allowing salty water to leak from his eyes. How dare they suggest he had been doing a girl's job! (No offense to you girls out there. I just believe that the naive Naruto's mentality would suggest that females would do this sort of thing. I respect the female sex, oh believe you me. I'm frightened.)

'Wait a minute...Blunt as a steel shot-put? Must be-'

"Hanabi-chan? What are you doing here? And I wasn't crying!"

Indeed, it was Hanabi. She was wearing a similar outfit to the one Naruto had first seen her in. She was in a plain gray yukata with dark gray pants and a bluish gray sash and thonged sandals. Hanabi walked over to where Naruto was sitting and plopped down next to him. She didn't know why, but she felt freer than she felt at any other time to do childish things and have not a single care.

"I just came back from training in the field behind the Hokage monument with Otou-sama. I thought I might buy something to eat but saw you. You looked sad."

"Heh, well, it doesn't take a genius or super-eyes to figure out I was sad. But I'm fine now, see?"

Naruto mustered up his best grin. It was half real, half fake. He was happy to see that Hanabi hadn't forgotten him but still a little miffed about the incident.

"Naruto-niichan, you're a terrible liar, do you know that? You don't have to lie to me. I'm your friend."

Hanabi copied Naruto's current position and wrapped her arms around her legs. She looked at the morbid sky twist and turn at the will of the wind. As a cloud passed by, it began to rain. First a light sprinkle then an all out deluge. All the better, Hanabi loved the rain. It was one of the ways she still felt like a kid her own age and not get in any trouble for being a delinquent.

But for once, Hanabi didn't feel like running around in the rain. She felt too compelled by the aura of sadness and loneliness that surrounded her new friend.

"Naruto-niichan...-"

"I passed my Genin selection exam..."

Hanabi blinked at this. This was wonderful news! How could Naruto be so sad about it?

"I see you're wondering why I'm sad if I passed the exam, huh?"

Hanabi blinked again.

"Wah..how did you-?"

"I told you, didn't I? You don't need super-eyes to read things about people."

Naruto gave a wary, half-smile in Hanabi's direction. In that moment, Hanabi saw rather than sensed a presence within Naruto's eyes. It intrigued her and stirred the curiousity only a small child could possess.

'Byakugan.'

As she activated her bloodline and dived into Naruto's eyes which were all but open windows to her. She dived in and caught sight of the presence she had seen.

She was mentally scarred from that point on.

Her mind mentally screamed from what she was seeing. A myriad of bloody, hellish nightmares were flung at her. Visions of massacres, emotions running high, bloodlust and bloodthirstiness. The enjoyment of watching another life suffer and scream in agony as they breathed their last, ragged breath. Diving in face first on a downed body and tearing it apart and swallowing the flesh of the victim. Visions of a different world with gruesome monsters, battles fought on different planes of existance.

All the while, she heard laughing but couldn't distinguish it either as her own voice or of the creature laughing at her. Her mental self fell to the "ground", eyes blank and breathing hard. The laughter increased in magnitude and the creature dived in at her. All she could think of was,

'I'm going to die...someone..help...please...'

"Hanabi-chan! Hanabi-chan! Wake up!"

She felt a foreign object smack her across the face and she returned to the physical plane. As soon as she opened her eyes she began to cry and grabbed onto the nearest object to her, said object being Naruto.

Naruto didn't know what to do but hug Hanabi back. He knew, somehow, that Hanabi had seen within and saw the deadly secret that lay within Naruto's body and soul. Naruto grew saddened again when he thought this.

'I guess she'll leave me now. I guess it was still nice to have a friend, if only for a few days.'

Hanabi was still shaking when she let go of Naruto and looked up into his eyes. The laughter was still ringing in her ears and that awful grin she had seen...

"Na...Naruto-niichan..? Wh-what was that?"

"Hanabi-chan, please, don't tell anyone what you saw, no matter what, please don't tell anyone!"

Hanabi squinted her eyes a little at this.

"B-but...why?"

Naruto looked away from the little girl he treasured greatly ashamedly. He began to shake a little too, and not from the cold.

"It's because...I'm afraid, Hanabi-chan...I'm so afraid of what's going on with me and what secret I hold. It's driving me crazy!"

Naruto made to run away as fast as he could and not look back but his pants got snagged by something. Unwillingly he turned around to look at what had stopped him and saw little Hanabi holding his leg and using chakra to hold herself in place and looking up at him with a pleading look.

"Naruto-niichan...Nii-chan! Don't run away! Please."

Naruto looked down at the girl with a mixture of love and sadness and allowed himself to be pulled down back under the tree. He rested with his back to it and Hanabi walked around and sat at the opposite end behind Naruto and hugged her knees.

There was silence for a long time, both people out in the rain watching the droplets perform the deadly dance and dive. It was a while before anyone spoke.

"...At the Genin selection exams, I actually failed. I did my best but couldn't do the bunshin no jutsu."

Hanabi had to retort after this. She snorted and said,

"Nii-chan, you really couldn't do a bunshin no jutsu?"

"Quiet, squirt!"

Both of them laughed a little at this, both feeling a little at ease again. Naruto continued.

"After Iruka-sensei failed me, Mizuki-sensei came up to me and said a load of bull about stuff. Then he said that there was a special way I could pass the test and still become a Genin, even after I failed. I jumped at the chance to become a real Genin, a real ninja. He said that there was a special shrine that held a special scroll, the Scroll of Sealing."

At this, Hanabi gave a light gasp. She had heard of the legendary scroll full of forbidden techniques that the previous Hokage had left behind. Naruto continued, undaunted.

"Mizuki-sensei said that if I learned a technique from the scroll, I could be passed and become a Genin. So I went to the place at night and took the scroll from the shrine. I spent hours trying to learn one of the techniques written on the scroll. Iruka-sensei found me after I had learned a technique from the scroll but was attacked by Mizuki. Mizuki only told me about the scroll so I would take it and it would be easier to steal from then on. Iruka-sensei told me to run and I did, but not before Mizuki revealed something to me. He told me why everyone hates me, why everyone avoids me like I have a really bad sickness..."

"...Nii-chan-?"

"The monster, Kyuubi, was sealed inside of me at birth."

Hanabi froze up at this. Time seemed to slow down and everything seemed to disappear except for her and Naruto, circling in a vast void of nothingness. She couldn't move and could barely think.

'Nii-chan...Naruto-niichan has the Kyuubi sealed in him? But...but that's not fair! Why!'

The nothingness shattered and subsided when Naruto spoke again.

"You can leave if you want to, Hanabi-chan. I know you don't want to be friends with the demon of Konoha. I won't bother you again."

Naruto left it at that and stared out at the darkened road, obviously expecting Hanabi to leave him at the tree and never talk to him again. Hanabi slowly stood up and brushed the dead grass off her clothing. Naruto never looked behind him and heard footsteps, presumably walking away. He closed his eyes and leaned back against the tree. Until he felt pressure on his left side and reopened his eyes.

Hanabi was sitting next to him, cuddled up and using his arm as a pillow while looking at the road as well. She looked contented.

"Ha-Hanabi-chan? What are you doing? I thought you were going to leave?"

As if to prove him wrong, Hanabi snuggled closer and closed her eyes, sighing in content.

"I won't leave you, nii-chan. You're my best friend."

She looked back up at him and stared him straight in the eye.

"Friends always stay by friends."

Hanabi grabbed Naruto with surprising strength and pulled him into the rain with her. She closed her eyes and began to laugh while dancing in the rain, an implied invitation to Naruto to join her in the small act of freedom and simple pleasure. Naruto gladly accepted the invitation and joined her. He didn't feel foolish in the least.

_If only, if only, the moon speaks no reply;_

_Reflecting the sun and all that's gone by._

_Be strong my weary wolf, turn around boldly._

_Fly high, my baby bird,_

_My angel, my only..._

**end Chapter 2**

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and that's chapter two for you. some dramatic angst stuck in there.

reviews will be appreciated greatly, onegai?


	3. Chapter 3

this is the last chapter i will write for at the very least 3 months. i'm going to boot camp cuz i've been a very bad boy

NOT, actually, i'm going to boot camp for marines training, so be disappointed, vow to never read my story again, blah, blah, blah.

anyway, this chapter is set 10 years after chapter 2. i know, a long jump in time, and there will be synopses to what has happened during that time period. be prepared for a cliche story as i have decided to make this chapter a Naruto/Hanabi thing, bleh (makes face)

Speech:

'Blah', people's thoughts

"Blah", people's speech

**'Blah', Kyuubi thoughts**

**"Blah", Kyuubi speech**

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, 'nuf said

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**Chapter 3**

Ten years. It had been ten years since that time when Naruto felt excruciatingly happy for the first time in his life. Six years since he had last seen Hanabi.

Naruto awoke to those saddening thoughts. It was 5 a.m. Naruto only got up at this ungodly time as part of his shinobi agenda. Automatically, he pushed himself out of bed and instantaneously made his bed immaculately and made his way to the bathroom.

"Six years...Happy Anniversary," Naruto said to his own reflection in the mirror.

Naruto had grown up with Hanabi since he was twelve years old. He had become a close friend to Hanabi during the four years after that. He had even gone out with her on occasion to celebrate her promotion to honorary chuunin at the age of eleven for her acts of bravery while defending Konoha during a raid from Sound shinobi alongside other shinobi and also just for the sake of spending time together. Those were some of his happiest times, other than his moments with Team 7 and the other "Rookie Nine" (they're no longer rookies, therefore in quotations). He had dated her once out of actual pursuit of romance. It went fairly well but did not have the desired effect.

The Hyuuga clan caught wind of their heiress having a relationship with the village pariah and reacted rashly. They refrained Hanabi from ever seeing Naruto again and locked her inside a private compound and attempted to have her "educated". Naruto felt sure, that after four years of close friendship, that Hanabi would break out anyway and stay by his side. He was sure nothing would be able to stop her.

He was wrong. He had been waiting a block away from the Hyuuga compound for Hanabi to show up, prim, slender, and graceful as ever, maybe a little winded, but show up at the very least. He had the confidence to smirk while staring at the Hyuuga guarding the gates a ways away. He didn't sense any scuffles or any attempts at sneaking out from within. When a week had finally passed, Naruto's smirk of confidence was whittled down to a grimace of disappointment.

Hanabi had not shown. Naruto was wrong.

The humiliation itself was enough for Naruto to take a leave of absence from his shinobi duties, special request to Sandaime (he has not died in my story), to live a life as a hermit, wandering to nowhere in particular for three years. He had met up with a man who called himself Jiraiya during his travels and received special training for shinobi from him for a year, including summonings, something Naruto had been wanting to do for a very long time. Granted, due to Naruto's brashness Jiraiya felt training him was a lost cause. It wasn't until he witnessed Naruto meditating, caught up in the serenity of a calm mind, something he had learned from putting together the Yamanaka clan's training of the mind and the way Shikamaru always loafed about, staring at the clouds without a thought, and instructions from Hanabi, that Jiraiya felt it worthwhile to train Naruto.

Jiraiya had taught Naruto basic ninjutsu theory, encouraging him to be creative and create his own techniques and find his own style instead of being direct and teaching him actual techniques. In fact, the only things Jiraiya had actually taught to Naruto was the Fourth Hokage's 'Rasengan', how to unleash the Kyuubi's chakra, summoning, theorem's, several useful techniques utilizing scrolls, and the 'Tactician's Mind', a thought process that was similar to the Nara "genius" that calmed the user down and allowed the user to approach the problem analytically. But it required total concentration and seven seconds of leeway time which left one as the proverbial "sitting duck".

The year after Naruto and Jiraiya parted ways, Naruto encountered a rather busty woman who went by the name Tsunade and her close friend, Shizune. Oh, there was also the pig, Tonton. He spent another year with the trio learning various strength increasing katas and a few medical ninjutsu. On one occasion he accidentally found Tsunade without her concealing genjutsu on and saw her true, old, decrepit form. He was told to never reveal this to anyone (after a healthy reprimanding and beating). His learning of medical jutsu seemed to slow down after that incident, although Tsunade declined such a statement.

He had to admit, all that he learned from her helped him out during his last year of his life as a hermit. He had fought a bunch of fancy cloak wearing freaks with red clouds on black cloaks calling themselves the Akatsuki. There was one in particular that had a liking for asking Naruto odd questions like, "How's my foolish little brother doing?", while continuously beating him half to death. Naruto had been able to take down one of the members before losing consciousness. After that he woke up in a crater with one more body lying dead. His body felt as though it had been burnt through several times. He couldn't run or do any strenuous activity for a few days and spent the majority of his time in a hotel room he had booked in a village South of Konoha by a few hundred miles on a small island.

By a stroke of luck he ran across a slot machine that still had one credit left. Apparently the old user (he suspected it was Tsunade although he had yet to see her in this village) had left the machine in a fit of rage (judging from the trail of damage leading away from said machine) due to losing time after time (the overly large jackpot pointed to such, you know where this is going). Naruto didn't believe in such a thing as luck and just pulled down the lever and began to walk away until he heard alarms start to blare. He instinctively crouched down, spun around, and pulled out a kunai to face whatever foe had set off the alarms.

He soon found himself pulled towards the machine by several tuxedoed arms, being unable to resist due to his mysterious injuries. The manager of the casino came up to him, crying for some reason, and handed Naruto several cases of money and ushered him out rapidly. Naruto vaguely heard the manager crying as he walked away. After that, Naruto went back to Konoha to find that nothing much had changed.

Unless you counted that Tsunade had come to Konoha to take up the offer to be the new successor to the Hokage name. Other than that, all was the same. Which meant Naruto saw neither hide nor hair of Hanabi for another three years, all up to today he had yet to see his first friend.

Naruto sighed as he got out of the shower (remember, he was reminiscing, pretty long reminiscing though). He got on his clothes and his jounin vest. He had been promoted to special jounin when he had returned, special favor on request from the Sandaime. He wasn't obligated to wear the vest, but it was a convenient place to store scrolls in. He hung his hitae-ate loosely around his neck. His hair had grown slightly longer, the hair on the back of his head now reached his shoulders and the rest of his hair had grown about an inch or so from his usual style and still kept its spiky style. Unsurprisingly, he hadn't ditched his orange jumpsuit. There was just more blue on it than there had been when he had been sixteen. There were now pads on this shoulders, elbows, and knees. Traditional in all gloves most jounin wore there were steel plates over the back of the hand.

He quickly ate the remains of his late dinner, a pretty fancy dinner too, and walked out the door not bothering to lock the door. He had set too many traps and detection sensors that released packets of chakra which had already been molded to release several Shadow Clones thanks to some experiments he had done with chakra restraining seals. It wasn't that he didn't feel safe leaving his home completely open, but he felt that some of the villagers needed to learn a lesson about breaking into his home and destroying his property.

He leapt onto a rooftop and began leaping roof to roof until he reached a training ground on top the Hokage monument with a stupendous chakra enhanced leap. His clothes became slightly damp from the morning fog that had yet to lift. Perfect.

Naruto sat down and crossed his legs and started with the Tactician's Mind to just calm his mind before training.

'A ninja must always be in control of his emotions,' Naruto kept repeating that in his mind.

He had discovered meaning behind those words, a hidden meaning. Being in control of one's emotions did not mean locking them away or getting rid of them. It meant knowing when to unleash emotion but not letting it take control. Being an emotionless weapon did not help shinobi much. Take Gaara, for example. He was an excellent "weapon" as the Sand called him. Cold, calculating, uncaring, and emotionless. And yet Naruto kicked his ass and still had enough energy to pull it off in style. That had been when he was still twelve years old and had his emotions running rampant.

"Shinobi, what is "shinobi" anyway?"

Naruto got up and performed the kata he had learned from Tsunade. Surprisingly enough, that monstrous strength the Godaime used was not just brute force. It was more like Tai-Chi than anything else. Just a little bit of tweaking with chakra and moving faster with the same fluidity and grace Tai-Chi utilized. He started off slow and began practicing using techniques while simulating a slow-motion battle.

He had yet to be able to successfully pull off seal-less techniques while in the heat of battle and desperately needed practice. The only one he had come close to perfecting was the Shrouding Mist Technique. As he danced about he released a continuous stream of chakra from all his tenketsu successfully saturating the morning air with his chakra. He then attempted to draw the chakra together into a single dense clump surrounding him but only succeeded to get several pockets of thick mist placed randomly. Naruto sighed as he continued with his kata.

It was not in his nature to stop something once he started it, but it was also not in his nature to be spied on. Making it look like a part of his kata, Naruto dug out a kunai from his pouch and threw it to where the intruder was situated. There was a rustling of bushes and a flare of chakra and the figure had gone. Naruto scoped the area and found a piece of ripped clothing caught by the kunai. A distinctly familiar style of clothing.

"Hmph, Hyuuga. Now what do they want with me? I havn't even seen Hanabi in six years and yet they still try to torment me. Che, little weasels."

Naruto scowled and, with a puff of his breath, lit the scrap of clothing on fire. His early morning exercises ruined, he decided to report to the Hokage Tower to check for any mission assignments he had received. He didn't notice a pair of white eyes sadly watching him jump off the cliff and disappear.

"Naruto..."

**At the Tower**

"Hokage-sama, Uzumaki-san is here to-umph!"

The ANBU guard was cut off by an official looking folder smacking him in the mask.

"Ahem, yes, Uzumaki-san, this is for you."

The disgruntled ANBU handed Naruto said folder. Naruto sympathized with the man, it had to be a hard job. He clapped his hand on the ANBU's shoulder briefly and shared a nob and a sigh. Opening the folder, Naruto walked away.

He scanned the contents of the folder quickly. He had an A-class mission: escorting someone to the Stone village. It was border line S-class due to some renegade A-ranked shinobi on the loose in that general area. There was no detail on whom he was escorting but as long as it got Naruto some action, he didn't mind. The report read, "Meet contact at South Gate, 12:00 p.m.".

Naruto scanned it once more and quickly burned it, shinobi must not leave traces of themselves or any information behind. It irked him some that he had been assigned such a mission on such short notice, but he resigned himself to it and left to prepare.

On his way back home he met Shikamaru and Neji, one of the Hyuuga clan that he did not mind...much.

"Oi, Shikamaru, how are you doing? Where're you going with Neji? Not on a date are you...," Naruto slyly asked.

He was justly rewarded with a cold glare from Neji and a slap on the head from Shikamaru.

"Dolt...geez, we were just gonna go and have a few games of Go at the bar...You wanna come and have a game?"

Naruto smirked at Shikamaru. Ever since he had beaten Shikamaru once at a game called chess he had gotten imported from a western country, Shikamaru had taken to randomly challenging him to difficult and boring games. Naruto insisted he had been lucky but Shikamaru either didn't care or felt the need to prove himself.

"Nah, sorry, Shikamaru. I've got some stuff to do later on. Maybe some other time."

Shikamaru waved off his excuse with a, "Che, whatever."

However, when Naruto began walking away, he felt a heavy hand on his shoulder stop him. He turned around to face Neji, looking more serious than a Hyuuga would normally look.

"Naruto-kun, keep your guard up and do be careful."

Neji nodded once before letting him go and walking towards the bar. Naruto nodded in Neji's direction. Although he did not understand the meaning, he felt he should follow Neji's advice. He was a genius, after all.

When Naruto got home, he began to pack up scrolls, weapons, and rations. He had a variety of scrolls: summoning, sealing, storage, and also memory scrolls. The memory scrolls, when properly used, stored Naruto's memories of a mission for later viewing. They required the exact sequence of seals and exact amount of chakra to activate once memories had been stored in them.

His weapon of choice was a japanese kodachi, a short-sword, hand crafted by a master blacksmith from Tenten's family. It was light, durable, and deadly. Naruto had grown fond of the sword when it had saved his life when he had crossed paths with an ex-Konoha nin, ranked A-class. He had accidentally surged chakra through the blade when he swung it and an arc of chakra shot out cutting off one of the missing-nin's arms. Granted the blade did not go very far, at most 30 yards, but it had shocked the rogue long enough to let Naruto lob off his head with the blade. When asked, the blacksmith admitted to using chakra to enhance the blade while forging it, he said it was a thank you gift for saving his daughter when she and Team Gai had gone after Akatsuki's base of operations.

Naruto also packed several pouches full of kunai, shuriken (imported from Stone country, ironically enough), and, oddly, several toys called yo-yo's. No one knew why, but Naruto had grown to have a fetish for yo-yo's when he had gotten one about seven years ago.

Naruto stored several tents, extra rations, extra water, and extra weapons into his storage scrolls. Just in case something went wrong with the ones he had already packed, minus the tents. He stuffed everything into the square-shaped backpack and strapped it on tight. He had an hour until he was to meet the contact.

Once he made it to the South Gates of Konoha, Naruto jumped onto a rooftop and lied down. In a fashion that would make Shikamaru proud, Naruto leaned back and watched the clouds float by. Ignoring the faint sounds of Konoha civilians and traffic, the South Gate was a kind of lonely place, hardly anyone went through here.

Without meaning to, Naruto fell into his mind and found himself in a very familiar sewer with a dim red lighting.

"Gah...alright, Kyuubi, what do you want this time?"

Resounding laughter made the water tremble and sent small waves crashing against the "walls".

**"Whatever makes you think I want something, whelp? Can't a demon have a nice chat with his container?"**

Naruto snorted, he knew Kyuubi well enough to make out one of his jokes.

"Fine, fine. So what do you need to warn me about this time?"

Kyuubi stopped grinning as he looked down on his human container. Was it sadness? Pity? Something unfamiliar was featured on Kyuubi's maw.

**"You're beating yourself up again because you weren't able to see the little Hyuuga bitch. I advise you not to self-mutilate yourself over her-"**

"She's not a bitch!...And, yeah, you're right I guess..."

**"You didn't let me finish," **Kyuubi stated with a wicked grin.

**"I could probably conjure you up some of the most gorgeous females in the entire history of this universe, all willing to do you any "service" you wish, so don't kill yourself over the little under-developed girl."**

Naruto fainted in his mind (is that possible?) while Kyuubi rolled around laughing in a non-sadistic manner. When Kyuubi finally stopped, he cleared his throat,

**"You know, I wasn't joking about that."**

That sent Naruto over the edge and out back to join the sunlit world. He muttered darkly and checked the sun.

"Almost noon, contact should be here soon."

Naruto waited on the ledge of the roof, swinging his legs idly while checking his internal clock.

'Five, four, three, two, o-'

"-Marg!"

Something slammed into Naruto's back causing him to fall off the ledge and onto the uninviting ground below. He struggled to get up until he felt that it was a person holding him in a loving fashion. In a hug.

'Long hair, slender arms, legs, and body, and irritatingly immaculate clothing?'

**'And underdeveloped "you know whats"?'**

Kyuubi snickered inside Naruto's head.

"Naruto-kun!"

Naruto looked down in shock at the girl clinging onto him as if her whole life had been leading up to this moment.

"Ha-Hanabi-chan?"

Hanabi buried her head into Naruto's chest and hugged him tighter while all Naruto could do was to pat her awkwardly on her head.

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

well, there you go. the last chapter I can write until 3 months have passed. poor me having to endure boot camp, eh?

i'll attempt to revive this fic once i return, so, pray for me, yeah?

sorry, guys, see you around


	4. Chapter 4

yes, i'm back from the dead. i've just been feeling really lazy and not up to writing any stories, so you're gonna have to bare with me until this story is complete. deal with it. anyway, on with it. i'm no good with conversational writing.

Disclaimer: Nope, don't own it. Kishimoto-san does...well, now Cartoon Network does.

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**Chapter 4**

There was an awkward silence from Naruto. Not that it was silent on the trip, mind you. It was just that he, himself, did not do much talking other than non-commital grunts and the occasional inaudible murmur. You couldn't really blame the man. He was currently leaping from tree to tree with Hyuuga Hanabi whom had been missing from his life for six long years. She was currently jabbering a lot, which was quite an unusual trait in a Hyuuga, whether they were of the Branch or Main Family.

"-and I made it to the Hyuuga Specialists when I turned fourteen. I've been on a lot of long, tough missions but I've never once failed. How have you been doing?"

The last question from her shook Naruto out of his daze. It wasn't that he couldn't think of an answer, it was just that, here, in this odd situation, he found Hyuuga Hanabi talking to him as if the last six years had not happened. On the one hand, Naruto was very glad, happy, ecstatic that Hanabi was back. On the other hand, he couldn't believe that on this day of all days he was reunited with her. Either there was a God looking after him or fish were swimming OVER a bridge and not underneathe it.

Over in Wave County, the residents couldn't understand why the trout suddenly decided to migrate by flopping across the Great Naruto Bridge instead of letting the flow of the ocean take them where they needed to go. They decided to pass it off as something that shouldn't be bothered with.

"Uh, well...I've been on leave for a couple of years. I met up with this weirdo pervert that turned out to be a really great teacher. He gave me some great tips on being a better ninja. Aaand...I met the Hokage, Tsunade, a year after that and she gave me a lot of lessons on chakra control and medical techniques while I traveled with her. I couldn't really get the hang of the more difficult techniques but I got some great ideas out of them. When I came back, Sandaime-ojiji let me become a Special Jounin because of the field training I had and that's about it until now."

Things continued in this vein until the sun had set and they set camp for the night. Naruto released the seals on his scrolls and, a few minutes later, had a small bivouac site set up and a small fire going. While they ate their rations, they continued talking and swapping stories, but Naruto still couldn't get over his awkward state of mind. To be perfectly honest with himself, he knew it was too good to be true.

'Never mind, I'll leave this for tomorrow morning and ask her directly about this.'

"Oi, Hanabi, we should turn in for the night. We're gonna be setting off early tomorrow and we can't be late if we wanna meet the deadline."

Naruto retired to his tent and quickly began his mental preparation for sleep. He practiced clearing his mind before sleep and began to set his internal clock to wake him up and exactly six A.M. the next morning. He couldn't focus on his problem with Hanabi if he wanted to have a restful sleep and be prepared for a long day tomorrow.

As his breathing began to slow, his eyelids began to close upon his eyes as they flickered a little from side to side. The sound of the wind outside was very comfor-

Hanabi swung her kunai and felt it drag across Naruto's back up to his shoulder. The blood that spurted did not make her twitch as it landed in pebble-sized drops on her face and body. She saw and felt Naruto's body twitch violently and shudder before it finally slumped over, body temperature rapidly decreasing. She nodded to herself and began to pick herself up until she felt a soft breath land on the back of her neck. Not missing a beat, she swung her kunai in a reverse grip swing backwards only to have her arm suddenly drop and dangle pointlessly at her side. As she stared at it, dumbfounded, she heard a voice, harsh, deep, and full of malice.

"You know..."

The voice made shivers run up her spine and increase her heart rate. She was going to die. She was going to die.

'I'm going to die, I'm going to die, I'm going to die...'

That was all she could think as the voice continued to speak.

"I don't take kindly to assassins. You see, I had some bad experiences with them when I was only four years old. The first time, some ANBU saved me. The second time, I fought back and managed to escape. The third time, I managed to land them in the infirmary with most of their bones broken. How should I deal with you?"

Hanabi still had one card to play, despite being scared to the point of pissing herself. If there was anything she was taught, it was that Naruto had a great weakness for people he held dearly and could not bring himself to harm them or attempt to kill them. Steeling herself, she spoke, sounding calmer than she felt.

"Hey, I just wanted to test your stuff, you know? See if you were as good as everyone says you are. Just wanted to make sure you weren't as clumsy as you were all those years ago. Come on, please forgive me?"

She turned her body towards Naruto expecting to see soft, kind eyes and acceptance. What she found was far worse than she could have imagined. Gone were the fun-loving blue shades in his eyes. Instead, she looked into eyes red as blood, the pupil agitatingly slowly elongating into vertical slits. It was like looking into the eyes of a demon from hell. She could no longer tell whether she had lost control of her bodily function of evacuating itself or not.

"Is that so? Then would you like a demonstration...Hanabi-_chan?_"

Without being able to see it, she was suddenly launced outside the tent with a small explosion and landed several yards away into a clearing. As quickly as she could manage she stood up and faced towards where Naruto was. She was scared, the blast alone had managed to crack three of her ribs and give her several small burns that made it a hassle to move.

As she scanned the area with her Byakugan, she saw Naruto blur into view ten feet in front of her. He had abandoned his jacket and was in a long-sleeved, loose black shirt and his orange bottoms. She entered the Hyuuga Jyuuken stance, low to the ground and waited for Naruto to attack. She knew she was at least fast enough to deflect his blows and begin to invade his chakra system little by little with each time their bodies made contact.

Except...Naruto did not rush into battle as she was taught he would. He just stood there, eyes full of the promise of pain, but not doing anything to make good on that promise. Then, the horribly twisted face broke into a grin.

"You think I'll go straight at a Hyuuga when fighting? How very intelligent of you. Yes, you've known my style for several years, and I expect that you've been given lessons on how best to fight and or kill me. But see, this is exactly why I'm Konohagakure's Number One Surprising Ninja."

Slowly he spread his legs to just slightly wider than his shoulders and crouched a little. His arms lowered to just above his knees, all the while smiling that cruel smile. Hanabi watched his chakra coils and saw chakra circling around his throat and going wild in his lungs. He spoke one phrase,

"I know how to adapt."

After that, all Hell broke loose. It wasn't a scream, it wasn't a shout, heck, it wasn't even a battle cry. It was a howl. A howl so loud, so energized by pressurized chakra that it all but exploded from Naruto's mouth. Hanabi didn't stand a chance. She was instantly flung from her feet and sent flying through the air receiving lacerations all over her body from the wind. She vaguely felt her eardrums explode and the blood gush out. All the vibrations in the air from the howl began to affect her brain and she felt her eyes roll up and felt herself lose consciousness.

Naruto blurred into view, Hanabi lying at his feet bleeding from various places, her breathing shallow, eyes open but only the whites showing (but hell, we can't really tell can we?). He squatted down next to her head and tilted it so that her ear was pointing up to his face. He leaned closer and whispered softly into her ear,

"That howl wasn't very powerful, you know. Obviously you've only been training in arts that the Hyuuga approve of instead of broadening your horizons. And that howl? I only used it to attack the receptors that lead to your brain so it would prevent you from utilizing your Byakugan effectively. But it seems like I didn't have to worry about that, ne?"

He bound her with ropes of chakra resistant material, blind-folded her for the time being, picked her up and carried her back to the campsite over his shoulder. He dropped her into a sleeping bag and stood watch over her as she murmured nonsense and occasionally opened her eyes only to have them close seconds later. All the while, he frowned and cursed the Hyuuga for having so many damnable rules, regulations, and clan policies.

"The Hyuuga are weak..._You_ are weak, Hanabi. You all let your pride, arrogance, and the damnable tradition run your lives. You've become machines, you don't know how to live or live with others anymore. The Hyuuga will continue in this self-destructive path until they end up like the Uchiha clan; secretive, broken, spiteful, and destroyed by your own power. This is why I fight. This is why I live. This is why I WILL become Hokage. To stop fools like you from harming my precious people. The Hyuuga can't stop my dream. _You_ can't stop my dream."

When dawn had broken, Hanabi was still unconscious so Naruto cleaned up the campsite and planted Hanabi on his back and jumped into the trees. He continued jumping along the branches for a few hours until he felt Hanabi stir. He quickly dropped from the tree and made a Kage Bunshin in mid-air and threw Hanabi at it as he landed. The Kage Bunshin quickly tied her to a tree and proceded to slap Hanabi into full consciousness. Naruto crossed his arms and legs and leaned his back against a tree while watching Hanabi closely. As Hanabi came back to the conscious world, Naruto dispelled the Kage Bunshin and waited patiently for Hanabi to gain her bearings. Hanabi caught sight of Naruto and gave a fearsome snarl in his direction, nonetheless, causing no reaction at all. Naruto cracked a smirk and continued his leisurely pose against the tree and proceded to interrogate her.

"So, I guess the Hyuuga really must hold me in high regard to send an assasin such as yourself after me. What might the charges be?"

"You have been polluting the Hyuuga way. You tricked me into befriending you and you've been feeding me lies little by little, corrupting me and turning me against my own clan. That is an inexcusable offense, not only to the Hyuuga Clan, but to the entirety of Konoha. You would try to destabilize the greatest clan that Konoha has."

All this was said with a snarl that grew increasingly more fearsome, but still had no effect on Naruto. He just kept that irksome smile on his fox-like face as he ticked charges away in his head. He answered her in a mocking tone,

"I see. Wow, I had no idea the charges were so steep. Oh, won't the great Kami-sama forgive me for my transgressions against the _all powerful_ Hyuuga Clan! Oh me, oh my."

At this point, the snarl on Hanabi's face could have won against one from a member of the Inuzuka Clan. But Naruto was not finished with his dialogue,

"You've really been paying attention to those brain-washing classes that the Hyuuga have been giving you, eh? I can't believe you're stupid enough to fall for something like that. Will you really follow the teachings of the Hyuuga, even if they lead you off the edge of a cliff?"

"The teachings of the Hyuuga have sustained us since the very founding of the village! They are age-old, time-tested, and have kept the Hyuuga at the pinnacle of power between the many Clans that Konoha possesses!"

"Wrong, Hanabi-_chan_. That is foolish pride you have speaking for you. These eyes you hold in such a high regard,"

He was suddenly next to Hanabi, his fingers hovering above her eyes. Slowly, he ran over them, barely touching them with a frown marring his facial features.

"These eyes have granted you great power and the ability to see many things. Yes, truly a great power, indeed. But...it has given you a false sense of being. It, not only grants you incredible power, but it also grants you an age old prejudice and sense of superiority..."

Naruto was suddenly leaning on the tree again. Hanabi was starting to get nervous, she couldn't see him move at all! There was no idication that he had moved at all. No trace of wind, no movement from loose articles of clothing, nothing. It was as if he had been at those places all along but she couldn't see him. Naruto slowly closed his eyes and began questioning her again.

"Who gave you this mission? Who authorized such actions against a Jounin of the village? Surely the Hokage would not have agreed to this type of action."

"I will not speak. One such as you does not need to bother your pitiful mind with such information."

Naruto sighed, his eyes still closed. He gently lifted himself on the tree and, sedately, walked towards where she stood.

"You know, Hanabi-chan, you're not the only one who has good eyes. Your own cousin, Hyuuga Neji, once said to me, "Your eyes are even better than mine,". I had no idea how right he was. Much like your infamous bloodline, I too can bring a stunning and powerful change upon my eyes. Just one small detail, though. My power is...how should I put this...more _potent_ than any Doujutsu known."

Hanabi's eyes widened as she began to hazard guesses at what he was suggesting.

"You possess a Bloodline Limit? Impossible! If that were true, the Uzumaki Clan would have been in the Hyuuga Library listing everything about this power you speak of. There is not a record, even in the Hokage's private libraries of an Uzumaki Clan or, at least, another clan besides the Hyuuga and the Uchiha that possesses a Doujutsu in all of Konoha."

Naruto nodded, his eyes still closed, sycophantically as she spoke out loud. He grunted at the right times and added a few 'Yup's as she continued to rant to herself.

"True, this is all true. There is no Uzumaki Clan in Konoha and there never was. The name 'Uzumaki' comes from my mother, Uzumaki Kushina, who immigrated to Konohagakure from Amegakure. And she didn't have this 'Bloodline' you're wondering about. Infact...what I'm talking about isn't even a Bloodline Limit. I take it you still remember what I told you ten years ago, no? Kyuubi no Youko, greatest of the Tailed Bijuu. It seems that, even though he hates my guts, he has invested in my living long enough to produce offspring to pass bits of his spirit and power along. That investment includes several enhancements to my senses, endurance, chakra supply, strength, and a bunch of other stuff I'd really rather not think about."

Hanabi was starting to get a little nervous and confused. Naruto was still talking with his eyes closed, looking for all the world he was trying to speak in front of a class while trying to remember some quote or so from a history book. He looked too calm, more so than this situation would ever call for.

"So you're saying these eyes you speak of are merely enhancements that have been granted to you by that beast? Pff, have you forgotten that the Hyuuga possess the greatest of the doujutsu? Nothing a lowly commoner like yourself can brew up will ever compare."

"Tsk tsk, Hanabi-chan. How easily we forget, ne? Have you forgotten that Kyuubi was the _greatest_ of all the Tailed Bijuu? Have you never heard; all these Bloodline Limits that exist in this vast world all came from contracts, agreements, rituals, and so on from _demons_? How greatly diluted would that power be if it were to be given to mortals? This power I'm talking about, it stems _directly_ from Kyuubi, how much more powerful would it be, eh?"

Naruto bent his torso to better stare at Hanabi in the eyes if his eyes were open. He was smiling too much like a fox for Hanabi's comfort. She felt herself break into a cold sweat and felt a little weak in the knees, despite all the battle-hardening she had gone through in suicide missions and training. Something about his smile was driving Hanabi's primal instincts crazy, she couldn't form a coherent thought. That smile was looking more and more predatory even though not a single facial muscle had twitched. Her brain was screaming at her to run as fast as she could, and then some, away from where Naruto was. But she couldn't, she was fixated at his face, wondering what he would show her. The muscles around Naruto's eyes were slowly beginning to relax.

"And, you know, Hanabi-chan?"

His eyes opened fully and scarred Hanabi forever. Although his eyes looked the same as when he had first attacked her, there was something fundamentally different. Something that went deeper than the surface of the eyes. All of her perception melted away and all she could see were those horrible eyes. For all the world, it reminded her of what she had read about the Mangekyo Sharingan's 'Tsukuyomi'.

"Kyuubi absolutely, positively _hates_ being dismissed as a weakling and a mere beast."

Hanabi started to see horrifying visions where she was being brutally murdered, killed, and tortured. Her mental fatigue was beginning to grow to cosmic proportions. Panic began to take over her as she saw countless images of her own horrifying deaths pass by in a matter of seconds. She heard the insane, monstrous laughter that she had heard when she was still just eight years old. For what seemed like an eternity she saw images of her many forms of death, sometimes losing her mind and killing the Hanabi in the image before she could face the next horrifying death. And all of a sudden it stopped.

Hanabi immediately vomitted onto the ground before her, she started screaming nonsense and thrashed about wildly. Naruto looked down at her with a little concern grazing his eyes, he still held hope that Hanabi would return to the kind child he remembered. He bent down again as she began to calm down, occasionally twitching.

"There is a reason I am so well liked by the ANBU Torture and Interrogation Squad. Whenever they are not able to break a P.O.W. they call me in for a special favor. I work my magic, voila, they're broken nearly beyond repair, spilling their deepest, darkest secrets, right down to the name of the woman they might have cheated on their wife with. That episode you had? Nothing compared to what I normally do. Now spill it, who sent you and what was your purpose?"

Hanabi didn't look up as she answered. She was too scared to look into Naruto's face and did not have enough strength to look up at any rate.

"The Elders of the Hyuuga Clan authorized this mission. I also believe that some members of Konoha's Council may be involved and one other possible benefactor beyond the Council. They put a mission request under an assumed name and I was to accompany you to meet the false contact in any country they chose. I was to kill you outside of Konoha's walls at any given chance and make it look like you had died defending me. That way, no one could be blamed except the nin from other countries or possible Nuke-nin and Konoha would be rid of it's bane forever."

Naruto's mind was working frantically. There was something missing here, and he knew that Hanabi didn't know what that might possibly be. Ignoring Hanabi's continued mumblings of something mundane, he quickly sat down in the Lotus position, calling forth several Kage Bunshin at a distance to keep watch, and went into the **Boushin no Omoi (1)** and sought out any political advantages his death on a mission might bring. He frowned deeply as nothing relevant came up. Suddenly, he was struck with a brainwave and added Hanabi to the situation. If he were a Jounin with vastly larger experience in combat situations and enough strength to take down members of Akatsuki, no matter how lucky he might have been, there was no way that Hanabi would have been able to escape if they had finished him off. Hanabi was to be assumed dead. Naruto frantically began to piece other scenarios into place, such as the politics of the Hyuuga Clan. If Hanabi were dead, then that would leave no heir other than Hinata.

'But that doesn't make sense...They say it all the time, Hinata would be a terrible Clan Leader. Why would they want to clear the way for her...unless...'

Naruto concentrated harder, his clones were sending messages via Wind Nature Chakra making it slightly difficult to finish the puzzle.

'...They want Hinata-chan to be the Clan Leader...why? After receiving the information of Hanabi's demise, Hinata-chan would be distressed, possibly carrying a mark for the rest of her life. The Council would play up on that and that way...indirectly influence the entire clan and it's policies. That way they can bolster the seperation between the Branch and Main House and tip the scales in their favor!'

Naruto suddenly saw a vision of a mask, a sudden flash of light, and a plume of smoke indicating that one of his Kage Bunshin had dispersed. He snapped his eyes open and quickly summoned Gama-kichi.

"Ahh! Nii-chan, do you have any snacks for me today? That Pocky the other day was fantastic!"

"Gama-kichi, I solemnly promise you I will get you as much Pocky as you can eat if you can deliver this information to Tsunade-obaba or Ero-Sennin without fail."

"Alright, Nii-chan! I promise I can do this!"

"Good, now let me give you a hand in getting your first jump."

Naruto felt two more short memories enter his mind, whoever they were, they were getting closer. Naruto put his forefinger to his temple and withdrew a string of chakra and deposited it into Gama-kichi's head. Naruto quickly went through a series of hand seals and stopped at 'Tori'.

"Gama-kichi! Heads up!"

Naruto swiftly kicked Gama-kichi into the air, with a string of protests and possibly tears. Naruto released his chakra and gave a cry,

"Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu!"

A dragon made completely of water exploded out of the nearby river with such force that for a second the river bed in that area was completely dry. The dragon crashed through the woods around Naruto and Hanabi. The information being sent though Wind Nature Chakra told Naruto that he had effectively neutralized two of the threats. He then controlled the flow of the jutsu so that it shot into the air and caught the still airborne Gama-kichi, gently, and shot as far as Naruto could manage with his control towards Konoha. He quickly spun around and saw two massive explosions go off in the forest. Naruto concentrated for a second to pinpoint where fights were breaking out. There were two more enemy nin in combat with the rest of his Kage Bunshin. Naruto dashed off to where his clones were and prepared for battle.

The clones were beginning to wear down on one of the enemies so Naruto focused on that one. Undoubtedly, this enemy was exceptionally skilled at chakra control and Taijutsu.

'What a big giveaway...'

No doubt this was a Hyuuga, as if the short bursts of chakra each hit gave off were any more indication. Naruto shot off the roots of a nearby tree and launched three kunai at the Hyuuga. Predictably that signaled the start of a Hyuuga Art, Kaiten. Naruto knew Kaiten, he had destroyed Neji's Kaiten at any rate. He knew that it was pretty much an immovable object. But Naruto loved challenges, to an immovable object, he was the irresistable force. Naruto quickly shut off the pain receptors in his right arm by blocking off electrical impulses in that direction using medical chakra and gathered chakra to a fine point on his fist. He leapt into the air while Kaiten was still in motion and dropped, aiming for the center of Kaiten's rotation. As soon as he made contact, he released all the pent up chakra in his fist and watched as Kaiten was suddenly halted and the body within crumpled. Naruto didn't feel the lashes the trails of leftover chakra from the Kaiten, thanks to his medical chakra's intervention. He quickly summoned a combat oriented toad to watch over the body.

"Please watch over this one, **Gama-Sumasshu-san (2)**."

Naruto quickly leapt in the direction the other combatant was running towards.

'Shit! He's heading for the area I left Hanabi at!'

Hanabi, meanwhile, was staring into the face of one of her own comrades, a fellow Hyuuga Specialist, who was shaking his head disappointedly as he drew a ninja-to from his back. Hanabi couldn't even must the strength to shiver as she heard the metallic scraping of the blade leaving it's sheathe.

"I really detest having to use this weapon, but we must make it look as though you were killed by enemy nin. That is...if your body is ever found. Farewell, Hanabi-_hime_."

Just before he swung the ninja-to down, a large shuriken snatched it from his hands and knocked it a ways away. The would be assassin jumped back quickly as Naruto came into view, eyes promising bloody murder. With a snarl, Naruto addressed the Hyuuga,

"You'd be so crass as to take down one of your own? Even the daughter of the Head of the Hyuuga Clan?"

"The Hyuuga Clan has long since despised Hyuuga Hiashi. He is of no concern to us. All he has to do is produce an heir who will take his place, and we will take care of the rest. This one is disposable."

Hanabi froze, her eyes widening slowly as realization sunk in. She was meant to die from the very beginning. If she somehow managed to kill Naruto, it would just be another prize to add. Hanabi barely heard Naruto as he spoke again.

"'Disposable'? Is that how you take human life? Shinobi or not, we aren't mere tools to be thrown away. Don't you dare speak to Hanabi in that fashion!"

Naruto's eyes hardened considerably and he with drew his kodachi strapped to his back. The blade seemed to shine and shimmer, as if in anticipation of the bloodshed. Naruto blurred out of sight suddenly and a sharp 'clang' was heard throughout the forest. The Hyuuga Specialist was staggering from the blow itself and was frantically looking around, even though his Byakugan was active. He caught a flash of movement and moved to block three kunai launched in his direction. He suddenly heard a voice from Hanabi's general direction,

"Fuuton: Daitoppa!"

Originally, Daitoppa was like a large blast of wind, but Naruto had added a large amount of Wind Nature Chakra to it and had the effect localized in a small area. When the winds had faded there was a large expanse that was devoid of trees. Naruto walked to the center of it all until he 'heard' a slight distortion in his dispersing Wind Nature Chakra. He quickly launched another three kunai into the air and heard three 'clang's and jumped back. The Hyuuga had avoided the localized hurricane by leaping as high as he could into the air, the lucky bastard. Naruto didn't seem too worried though. He sported a slight grin on his face as he relentlessly began to attack the Hyuuga again.

"Come on, come on, come on, COME ON!"

He shouted all the while he slashed his sword as if he were in a fast paced dance, occasionally letting off several blades of chakra with every few slashes he made. The Hyuuga in the middle of it all was thinking to himself that it was a bad idea to take up this mission because of the ridiculous amount of payment he might have received if he were successful. Naruto, otherwise, looked like he was having a blast.

"Come on! You're not even making a good warm-up!"

By this point, the assassin Hyuuga was getting fed up with this. Having absolutely no way to win this physically, he shot his mouth off,

"Shut up! I swear, after I kill you, I'm going to kill that little Hyuuga bitch very slowly because of you and I'm going to enjoy every second of it!"

Even as he was flying back, time seemed to stop. He looked at Naruto and noticed his pupils elongating vertically and slowly becoming red. He knew, at that moment, he had made a grave mistake. He wasn't going to leave here alive, and he wasn't going to the place where all good shinobi go when they die. Hell, not even where evil shinobi went when they died.

Naruto didn't mince words again. He launched two more kunai and stuck his kodachi in the ground and dragged it as he sped around the Hyuuga. He easily parried the two kunai and wondered what the blond Jinchuuriki was up to. He was making no attempt to kill him. All he was doing was randomly running from one end of the clearing to the other, leaving long gough-marks in the ground. Suddenly he stopped at the edge of the clearing wearing a face that screamed distaste. He was dangling a kunai from it's ring, but he could tell that there was something different about this kunai. He scanned the area with his Byakugan and affirmed it. All the kunai he had thrown all had tags on them, but he noticed that they were not exploding tags. The seal design was like nothing he had ever seen before. Naruto spoke,

"You know...I was considering just knocking you out and taking you to the Interrogation Squad and leaving you in their hands. But you know what? Now you've just pissed me the fuck off. I don't like you."

Naruto dropped the kunai he was holding point down to the ground. Checking again, the Hyuuga assassin noticed something he hadn't noticed before. All of the nine kunai were situated evenly in a neat circle all around the clearing that Naruto had made with his Daitoppa.

"Oh, and those lines on the ground? It's a kanji. The moment you attempted to assassinate my charge, it spelled you death for you. Now I've written your death for you."

Indeed, constrained in the circle of kunai was the kanji for Death. The nanosecond the final kunai had fallen into place, bright red chakra flared around, defining the circle of kunai with the tags with seals that Naruto had designed himself. It also lit up the kanji in the middle brightly. Naruto uttered one last phrase,

"**Tenma Gigei: Kyuu Bikou no Sendo Fushizen (3)**."

The seals on the ground flashed brightly and suddenly disappeared, taking the Hyuuga assassin with them. Naruto walked over to Hanabi and freed her of her bonds. Gently, he picked her up and placed her on his back and dashed off to where **Gama-Sumasshu** was. As he landed he heard an odd hissing sound. As his eyes widened in understanding he quickly dispelled **Gama-Sumasshu** and ran as fast as he could in the other direction. Seconds later the body of the Hyuuga exploded, due to the amount of exploding tags wrapped around his body. Naruto sighed as he gently placed Hanabi on the ground as comfortably as he could manage. He took out a memory scroll and scribbled a series of seals onto it. He extracted all his memories of this faux mission and copied them into the scroll and sealed it. He picked up Hanabi again and dashed off towards Konoha.

Meanwhile, the unfortunate Hyuuga that was caught in the **Kyuu Bikou no Sendo Fushizen** was screaming in the pits of Kyuubi's stomach as he was repeatedly brought to the brink of death in the worst possible ways he could imagine and revived repeatedly.

Naruto sighed on his way back to Konoha. He knew this would involve paperwork, and lots of it. It would also cost him a fortune because Gama-kichi was a bottomless pit and Pocky prices had been sky-rocketing ever since reports of a certain eccentric Uchiha attacking the largest Pocky manufacturing company had reached the Land of Fire. Yep, another day in the life of Uzumaki Naruto.

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I may have been gone but I'm certainly not out. I'm just really busy nowadays doing whatnot. If you guys still follow this story, hoo-wee, you must have been waiting for this for a while. my bad.

**1. Boushin no Omoi**: the Tactician's Mind, I figured I should put it in the Japanese translations if the rest of the techniques in the fic will be in Japanese.

**2. Gama-Sumasshu**: means "Toad that Smashes", I know, I love this name.

**3. Tenma Gigei: Kyuu Bikou no Sendo Fushizen**: Demon Arts: Nine Tails of the Strained Death, I love it, it sounds so...painful

Naruto's calling for you reviews! Do it or he will unleash **Tenma Gigei: Kyuu Bikou no Sendo Fushizen** on you! Ahahahaha!


	5. Chapter 5

another update, i know an act of God. i get the impression that many pple are irritated i have only completed four chapters in two years. as such, one reviewer...

know this, i wont have much time to update, i have alot of stuff to do and my spare time and strength of will to keep writing is low as it is.

show a little appreciation, y'all...

oh, and a new-comer will make his appearance in my story, this thought just came up all of a sudden, so i'll incorporate him into my story. it's my OC from my Digimon fanfiction, Hyou. No, he will not use digimon...

**Tama Saga**: yes, you've (kinda) guessed it. i will focus on the re-humanization of Hanabi. granted, it'll be a bit easier than one would think. she's just found out that she was used and abused by her clan so i think she'd be just a little more human in regards to Naruto. He did protect her, after all. but there will be many speed bumps along the way.

**anime-flunky**: you've just reminded me that I was wondering whether I should turn this into a Naruto and Hanabi relationship rather than just a friendship. maybe that point will make a little cameo at the end of this fic but it's still wide open.

**Tama Saga**: since you've asked for it, I will put it in. Yes, I did feel that Hanabi's reaction that night was pretty shocking, but that was the point!!! but you did have a good point, so the first part of this chapter is for you, enjoy.

so, on with it, then

Disclaimer: I do not, under any circumstances, own Naruto...or Naruto Shippuden

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**Chapter 5**

Hanabi unsheathed one of the kunai that she had coated in a non-reflective black paint. It also had a light coat of a fast-acting, lethal poison on it. As quietly as she could, she exited her tent and cautiously headed in the direction of Naruto's prone form. She took her time, carefully monitoring herself and Uzumaki Naruto. She had all the time in the world.

She heard Naruto's breathing relaxing and slowly, quietly pulled back the flap that seperated herself and Naruto. Soundlessly, she brought up the kunai into the air. Thoughts began to race in her head. It was odd. All these years of preparing herself to kill Naruto and she was starting to have second thoughts, weak as they may be. She remembered...

She remembered laughing, as a child should, while they danced together in the rain when she was still eight years old. She remembered fighting side-by-side with Naruto when a caravan approaching Konoha had been attacked by Sound-nin. She remembered that one date they had had when they attempted to form a relationship. She remembered the awkward silence when they fell and she was on top of Naruto, her face just inches away from his. But most of all, she remembered when she had seen him last before she was taken in by her clan and taught that he was attempting to destabilize the Hyuuga. She remembered seeing his confident face, as if he knew that she would come back to him after all those years...But she hadn't, she had grown wise to the manipulations that Uzumaki Naruto had attempted. She knew what she was doing was right...But still, she felt a little sorrow. Konoha, as a village, may not mourn the loss of Uzumaki Naruto, everyone else, as individuals, would. Even she might miss him, just a little.

She dug the kunai deep into his torso and swung it up.

And all hell broke loose.

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Naruto could feel his wallet thinning out already. He had just promised Gama-kichi as much Pocky as he could eat for delivering his message as fast as he could. He had already given Gama-kichi a tremendous head start thanks to his clever use of Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu and he was starting to regret it.

"Geez...I had to be in such a rush, didn't I? Stupid, stupid Naruto...Hmm...maybe I can catch up to him! If I do, then I could say our deal is off! Yeah! Alrighty then, let's kick it up a notch!"

Naruto began to channel a little Wind Nature Chakra underneathe his feet. The effect was that it acted like a high tension spring and gave him a greater reach every time he leapt off a tree. Soon he was just under fifty miles from Konoha and could sense Gama-kichi's faint chakra signal. Naruto smiled, he was gonna catch up! He was going to save his wallet from becoming anorexic! He was-!

He sensed a familiar chakra and immediately stopped to greet Morino Ibiki, the head of the Torture and Interrogation Squad. He had to wonder, what could it possibly be now?

"Yo, Ibiki! What brings you to this part of the forest? Not here to kill me too, are you?"

Ibiki smiled a bit as he answered Naruto,

"As much as I would love to do so to keep your yap shut, I'm here on Hokage-sama's orders. I am to take Hanabi off your hands and take her directly to the prison."

As he answered he held up a one-of-a-kind seal that Tsunade herself had devised to let special ops members identify any new helping hands she felt it worth sending. Naruto nodded and began to shift Hanabi's body so he could hand her over to Ibiki. But he was confused,

"But why would she send you out here when I could easily go myself?...And, wait! How did she know I was coming back?!"

"Your toad, Gama-kichi was it? He arrived there an hour ago and gave her your message."

Complete and utter silence.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?! But I can sense Gama-kichi's chakra just a little further ahead!"

At the Hokage's Tower...

Gama-kichi was patting himself on the back. Or rather, Gama-kichi's Mizu Bunshin. The real Gama-kichi had been in such a hurry to deliver Nii-chan's message that, while he was still being propelled by the Suiryuudan, he used some water flying off of the technique and created a Mizu Bunshin of himself and shot it farther into Konoha's territory and had gotten the message delivered that much quicker. Gama-kichi was such a good toad!

And back to the distressed Naruto

"Razzi-frazzi..."

Naruto mumbled to himself as he sat on the ground, pouting. Ibiki had long since taken off to Konoha and had told him to wait. Supposedly, there was a contact from the Hokage coming to meet him and pass on a special mission to him and he had to wait here for him. Naruto was already bemoaning the loss of his (yet to be spent) money and his patience was wearing thin. Of all the things to happen to him on a mission, this was the worst.

Naruto detected a chakra signature that was foreign to him but deemed it no threat. At any rate, what enemy would walk into view right in front of you with such a clueless look? He suddenly felt like sneezing for no reason at all.

The newcomer had medium length hair, just short of his shoulders at the back and just above the eyes in the front. The color was a shade of color he remembered seeing of freshly fallen snow in shadowy areas. Naruto guessed he was about 5'9" tall. He looked rather skinny in his clothes. He was wearing slightly baggy black training pants held up with a length of rope tied up neatly in front and the legs tucked into the tops of his blue sandals. His torso was bandaged up and he had on a loose black vest and a tattered brown cloak covering the rest of him. On his shoulders were what looked like tattoos of incomplete circles going around each other. He stared ridiculously at Naruto with dark brown eyes, looking for all the world that he was lost on his way to the bathroom. And then, suddenly, he smiled.

"Oi! You look real strong! Fight me!"

Naruto couldn't help but gape at this guy. Who just comes out looking lost and suddenly challenges you to a fight?! Naruto, at any rate, stood up and addressed the weirdo. He didn't pass up an interesting looking fight if he could help it. After all, there was no chakra signature for miles, so his contact must have either not taken off yet, or was really slow. He could afford a quick spar.

"You sure you wanna do that? I bet I could kick your ass in a minute!"

The stranger just grinned cheekily at Naruto, reminding him of himself for a bit, and pushed his cloak out of the way and revealed an odd item on the back of his waist. It looked like three short bars stacked on top of each other with some sort a flat black guard on top, curving over it. He pulled it out and pointed it at Naruto. Naruto, in turn, drew his kodachi from his back and held it at the ready stance.

"Hey, if I'm going to beat you, I should at least know your name."

"Heh, the name is Yuudai, but you can call me Hyou."

"What the-that makes no sense at all!"

"Hyou's just an alias I like to go by! Now tell me your name, damnit!"

"Naruto, the name's Naruto. Remember it when I pound your ass into the ground!"

At that, both combatants dashed towards each other. Naruto had to admit, Hyou had some astounding speed. He guessed that with his slight build and light body, he would have some decent speed. As for strength, well, he still had to test it. Naruto swung his kodachi hard and saw Hyou bring up his odd weapon to block it. A loud and sharp clang was heard and was ringing in Naruto's ears. He looked into Hyou's face and saw no sign of him straining himself to hold the kodachi back. Naruto quickly launched himself back and created three Kage Bunshin instantaneously to better observe Hyou's fighting style.

As he watched the fight, he noticed that he had never seen someone fight like Hyou. Hyou seemed to use deliberate attacks that seemed easy and simple to block but always made contact if the fighter wasn't concentrating on blocking effectively. He also seemed to hold more power than his build would allow and he moved with a grace that would have been deadly if he were using a better weapon. Naruto got the answer to his unasked question soon enough.

As the Kage Bunshin began to close in on Hyou, Naruto heard a sharp click and his eyes widened. Hyou's weapon seperated and he now saw that it was actually a long, three-section, collapsible pole. But he wasn't quite right either. Hyou used the two ends of the three-section pole and knocked two clones back. The third clone was closing in fast from the air but Hyou performed an unusual wrist-flick and brought the end of the pole swinging back and a wicked looking scythe-hook swung and sliced the clone in two. Hyou snapped his wrist down and all the sections of the scythe came together to form a full-length scythe. He spread his grip widely and brought himself into a low stance, his left side facing Naruto. He twisted where he was gripping and small blade emerged from the end of the scythe and several small curved blades swung into place on the pivotal point where the scythe's blade had swung up from, not unlike a fuuma shuriken.

Naruto tightened his grip on his kodachi and stared down Hyou warily. Hyou was still grinning. He grasped the bottom of the scythe and directed it towards Naruto.

"Come on! I give you one small surprise and you back off already?! I said you look strong, and I never lie about stuff like that! Now fight! Show me your strength!"

Naruto couldn't help but grin also, this Hyou guy made him excited and gave way to an urge to fight hard. As he dashed towards Hyou he made a string of hand seals and released his chakra.

"Kirigakure no Jutsu!"

A dense mist began to cover the landscape and threw the fighters into a blind fight. Naruto, though, was prepared for this and used the wind currents to find points of resistance and shapes to locate his opponent. But before he could do that, he heard an odd sound that seemed like something was being hardened and compressed. He suddenly felt something speeding towards him and he dodged just in time to see an icicle fly past his head. The mist suddenly disappeared and Naruto heard even more of the hardening sounds.

He quickly located Hyou and saw that he was surrounded by floating icicles. Hyou smirked as he swung his scythe in circles, the icicles moving along with him. Every time he gave a particularly hard swing, a round of icicles flew off towards Naruto and Naruto had to do everything he could not to get impaled.

"Come on, now! Is this really all that you've got, Naruto?! I know you can do better! Now show me!"

"Damnit! How are you doing that?!"

"You didn't really thing I'm called **Hyou (1)** for nothing did you? I have the ability to make ice! **Hyouton (2)**! My specialty techniques!"

Naruto frowned as he dodged more icicles. The only person he had ever seen or heard of using ice techniques was Haku, and he had died in front of Naruto's eyes. He had also disclosed the information that he was the only survivor of his family. So where did Hyou get the ability to use ice techniques? Naruto decided to not worry about this at the moment. He had a fight to win!

"If you're gonna use your specialty techniques, then I guess I should too! **Fuuton: Kyouran no Kouyou no Jutsu (3)**!"

Four mini-tornados appeared and due to Naruto's training in perfecting the Rasengan, he was able to effectively create and utilize them. One of the tornadoes sucked in rocks and many pieces of foreign debris along with a great amount of dirt. The second tornado drew in water from the river Naruto was running alongside. The third, Naruto spit a small ball of fire and ignited the whole thing. Naruto left the fourth, letting it grow in intensity. All four of them created a great wind that made Hyou lose focus and the icicles dropped to the ground. He had a hard time dodging and weaving around the debris kicked up and trying not to get sucked into the devastating tornados. Naruto didn't sit idly by, though.

Naruto quickly gathered miniscule amounts of chakra into his blade and shot them at Hyou so that he would either get hit or have to dodge into the path of a tornado while doing so. When this didn't seem to work for some reason, Naruto called forth another technique, to aid in his fight.

"**Doton: Biggu Rokku! (4)**"

He kicked the ground as hard as he could while directing a large ball of chakra through his leg and into the ground the moment he made contact. Suddenly, a large boulder shot out from the ground at an angle and launched itself at Hyou. Naruto watched as the boulder made contact. Or so he thought.

Hyou saw the large boulder coming to claim a spot on his face and decided that he couldn't live with that. He brought his hands together and gave a loud cry and focused as hard as he could. A ferocious gale kicked up and knocked the tornados out by sheer force and sent the boulder off-course and smothered the tornado of fire. Naruto was dumbfounded. He had just witnessed someone use a great amount of Wind Nature Chakra with such power that it had snuffed one of his specialty Fuuton techniques and had pushed the large boulder out of his way. Hyou started panting hard, his shoulders heaving with great effort as he brought his scythe back up to bear. Naruto had to ask,

"You used Wind Nature Chakra! What-How...What?!"

"Yeah, that's right. I have wind affinity. But I'm also closely affiliated with the nature of water."

"So that's...that's how you use Hyouton jutsu?"

"That's right, I use the wind to help bring in different pressure systems so it can either create water from the particles in the air or change the temperature."

They both charged at each other again, fighting purely physically. Naruto quickly summoned more Kage Bunshin to aid in his fight. Hyou was still fighting off the clones with graceful ease due to the fact that they all attempted to charge at him at once. And if Naruto's eyes weren't deceiving him, that scythe of his seemed to have sprouted another blade situated on top of the first one. Naruto dashed in as he saw an opening but was surprised when he felt more Wind Nature Chakra giving Hyou a push into his direction and brought his scythe up block. They both grinned at each other and took off again dashing through the woods around them and occasionally striking at each other. Naruto summoned more Kage Bunshin to chase after Hyou and wear him out. Suddenly Hyou blurred into sight a little ahead of Naruto, no problem there. But the problem lied in the fact that his scythe had shot out while he had appeared in front of Naruto. It seemed that the lower end of the scythe had an extensive chain that Hyou could use to attack from afar. The chain wrapped around Naruto's arms and the blade of the scythe rested on Naruto's left shoulder. Hyou could be seen grinning widely.

"Concede, or I lop off your head."

Naruto grinned as well, surprising Hyou greatly.

"You concede, or my clone will lop off _your_ head."

Hyou felt a blade slowly pressing in on his neck from behind. He closed his eyes in disappointment and gave a long-suffering sigh.

"Damn. You made a Kage Bunshin sneak up behind me. Damn sneaky of you, Naruto. But I guess that's why they call you the Number One Surprising Ninja."

He released Naruto from the grip of his scythe and called it back, swinging it artfully before it was stored away neatly on the back of his waist. Naruto dispelled his clone and walked over to Hyou. Hyou greeted him as such,

"Hot damn! You're just as good as Hokage-sama said you are! Most fun I've had in a fight in a while!"

"Wait a damn minute! You're the contact that was supposed to meet me?! What the hell?! Why'd you ask to fight me then?!"

"Well, I'm not from Konoha. I'm actually from a small mercenary village far off in the north. And I asked to fight you so I could get a good idea of how you fight; gonna need that information if I'm going to be teamed up with you. And Hokage-sama called me in because we had some information that she deemed was 'important to the future of Konoha'."

"Yeah and what would that be?"

"Information on Orochimaru's and Uchiha Sasuke's whereabouts."

Naruto's head nearly snapped off as it spun to look Hyou directly in the eye. Hyou was all business now.

"As of this moment, both Orochimaru and Uchiha Sasuke are in an underground chamber about forty-five miles west of Rice Country. All the countries that Hokage-sama contacted deny any knowledge of that particular area so we're guessing that it's one of Orochimaru's labs. Orochimaru is bringing Sasuke to introduce him as his protege to his underlings in every one of his labs. Our mission is to find out just what is inside these labs and effectively neutralize it's inner workings. If we happen to engage in combat with Orochimaru or Uchiha Sasuke, we are to escape."

Naruto was about to retort that he would never run away from both those bastards without at least knocking Sasuke out and bringing him back to Konoha but Hyou silenced him.

"Godaime-sama understands your passion, Uzumaki Naruto. So she has told me that if you wish to attempt to bring back the Uchiha traitor, feel free to try. But if he is unwilling and we are unable to convince him so, we are to label him an extreme threat and retreat. Is that understood?"

Naruto nodded, his eyes hardening, preparing him for the troubles to come. Hyou nodded as well.

"Good. Now, give me some food, man! I'm starving!"

Naruto stared incredulously at Hyou, unable to believe that this guy was all serious and business-like one moment, and completely retarded the next.

"What do you mean 'You're starving'?! We've got to get a move on and catch up to Sasuke-teme!"

Hyou waved a hand at Naruto, attempting to pacify him with the placating gesture.

"Now, now. I never said they'd be leaving in the next day or so. Orochimaru-teme will be spending a month there, training Sasuke on how to run this facility and just plain training him as well, I think."

"But-but-!"

"Aw come on! Havn't you ever heard: "Patience is a virtue"?"

"Haven't you ever heard of: "Another day another yen"?!"

"That has absolutely nothing to do with this situation!"

And this continued on for the rest of the day, idle chitter-chatter between the two nin and odd outbursts every now and then.

What a day, eh?

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Wow, a really quick update, I know.

**Don't grow to expect these.**

I can't update like this all the time, as much as I may want to.

**1. Hyou: **Ice, yup, it means Ice

**2. Hyouton: **Ice Release

**3. Fuuton: Kyouran no Kouyou no Jutsu: **Wind Release: Fury of the Elements Technique

**4. Doton: Biggu Rokku: **Earth Release: Big Rock, I know, such an original name huh? But I think that the simplicity is just Naruto's style.

anyways, reward this quick update by giving me lots of reviews! Ciao.


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